Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a vehicle diagnostic data collecting apparatus, a vehicle diagnostic data collecting method, a vehicle diagnostic machine, and a vehicle diagnosing method.
Description of the Related Art:
In the event that abnormal conditions are generated during driving of a vehicle, notification to the driver is performed through warnings by illuminating a warning lamp or the like that is provided on an instrument panel. Together with such abnormal conditions or the warnings that accompany the same, the user brings the vehicle to a dealer or a repair facility where diagnostic operations or repairs on the vehicle are carried out.
An operator (a technician or the like) in charge of the repairs connects a fault diagnosis device to an electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as an “ECU”) of the faulty vehicle, and by reading out information that is stored in the ECU concerning fault codes, etc., at the time that the fault occurred, abnormal systems (electrical circuits in which a fault is taking place) can be identified relatively easily. This type of fault diagnostic device is widely known, and for example, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,631.
However, in spite of the fact that various complaints from the user concerning faulty conditions may exist, cases occur in which there is no record of failure codes for such abnormalities. Further, cases occur (so-called problematic repairs) in which the faulty condition corresponding to such complaints cannot be reproduced even though the technician handling the repair attempts to do so, and hence repair of the vehicle is quite difficult to carry out.
With respect to such problematic repairs, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-070133 (hereinafter referred to as “JP2008-070133A”) and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0371977 (hereinafter referred to as “US2014/0371977A1”), a large capacity storage device is temporarily attached to an ECU of the subject vehicle, and the user is made to drive the vehicle over several days. In addition, data (driving parameter data) required for the fault diagnosis are collected and accumulated in the storage device, and detailed diagnostics are carried out by investigating the collected data using a failure diagnostic device or a failure analysis device.
According to JP2008-070133A, in order to automatically perform collection and output of data, ON/OFF operations of an ignition key switch 51 and ON/OFF operations of a USB power source caused by connection to a PC are detected, and collection and output of data are carried out (abstract). In JP2008-070133A, by a setting unit 18 that serves as a setting means, settings are made beforehand in a data collecting unit 15 as to which types of control data are selected and accumulated. The setting unit 18 includes an input/output operating unit, and for performing the setting operation with the setting unit 18, a model table 19 is prepared beforehand. Additionally, when an operator inputs the vehicle type of the vehicle in which a vehicle data collecting apparatus 1 is installed, from the input/output operating unit of the setting unit 18, types of control data (parameter IDs, etc.) to be collected, which are grouped and stored beforehand in the model table 19, are read out by the setting unit 18 and are set in the data collecting unit 15 ([0034]).
According to US2014/0371977A1, an operator inputs data collecting conditions (paragraph [0058]). Among the data collecting conditions, there are included a vehicle type, a vehicle model, a destination, specifications, a network type, an input channel number used by a data collecting apparatus 18, and the baud rate of the subject network 24 (paragraph [0063]). Furthermore, among the data collecting conditions, there may also be included content (items) of driving parameter data D, an ECU 20 (target ECU 20tar) that requests the data D, a time (continuous data acquiring time) for continuously acquiring the data D, a period (continuous data acquiring period) for continuously acquiring the data D, and a total time (total data collecting time) required to collect the data D (paragraph [0064]).